Title: Earth, Moon, and Sun: What they are and the roles they play.
Author: Derek D'Antuono
Grade Level: 8
Course: General Science
Purpose of Unit
This is a sub unit of the full seven week unit I will be doing on Astronomy. This portion is an extremely important part of the overall unit because it will allow me to introduce certain ideas and concepts to the students while reviewing some things they should have already had. The unit will start with the orbits of the Earth, Moon, and Sun and how they are positioned in space and their gravitational pull. This will lead directly into seasons and what causes the seasons. It also sets up moon phases. I will then talk about the sun which is a good place to end because I will then start the part of this unit on stars. All these concepts connect and its my goal to have the students be able to connect all the points and eventually connect them with the facts I will be presenting in the other sections of this large astronomy unit. Quick Overview:
1. Relative Position of Earth, Moon, and Sun
Assessment Plan
I will be using a variety of different ways to assess the students ranging from asking questions to having them write out conclusions to experiments. The formative assessments will be used to assess how the students are doing over the course of the unit. They will have meaningful feedback which will help the students to understand what it is they need to keep working on and what they are excelling in. I feel like it is important to not only have corrections and criticism but also some positive feedback so the student is rewarded for their work. The formative assessment I will be using can be seen in the lesson plans above. The students will also have a summative assessment at the end of the unit assessing everything that they have learned. They will be required to put together a children's book that talks about all the aspects of astronomy we have covered so far. It can be done any way they want. If they would like to make it a story about an alien coming from a different galaxy and learning about our solar system and galaxy they can do that or they can just have it as a factual book. The rubric will be attached soon. RMS Book Company Project Book Rubric
Rationale
When I first started writing this lesson I wasn't sure how I wanted to approach it but as I started to come up with different ideas and move through it I decided that I wanted it to have many different aspects of learning. There are quite a few different skills learned throughout this unit. The student will learn to do research online and how to organize facts they find into an outline. I want to get across to these students that each thing we do works together. Everything that they learn can be connected. This is why I chose to sequence the lessons the way I did. As I keep moving through the full unit it will still work off of the model we came up with as a class and I can refer back to earlier lessons to build off of. I feel like building off things is extremely important. I know that the students have already had some of these lessons in prior classes but the information is so important to the rest of the unit that I need to make sure they know it. If a student doesn't really get that the Earth moves around the Sun and the Moon moves around the Earth how will they understand the seasons or lunar phases? The unit is developed so that the students can take the things they have learned and apply it to something new and that way it is learning in small increments to learn a great deal overall. I have a series of small formative assessments that really are for me more then for the students, by having them do these assessments I can see if they understand the material. If they aren't I can give them the help they truly need, and also I can give them some feedback in these to help with the skills I am trying to instill also. Having them pass in the outlines will give me a chance to critique them and give the some helpful hints on how to write notes and outlines. I have the students work in groups quite often but I feel like that most of the assessments should be done individually. I feel like students can learn from one another. We are not the only teacher in the classroom. We may be the only licensed teacher but kids sometimes can relate ideas to one another a lot better then we can. I have always been a big believer in the idea that when students work together they get more out of it because they get more then just their own ideas. My hope for this unit is that the students are able to take this basic knowledge they learn and apply it to information they learn in the future because they have such a strong base.
Title: Earth, Moon, and Sun: What they are and the roles they play.
Author: Derek D'Antuono
Grade Level: 8
Course: General Science
Purpose of Unit
This is a sub unit of the full seven week unit I will be doing on Astronomy. This portion is an extremely important part of the overall unit because it will allow me to introduce certain ideas and concepts to the students while reviewing some things they should have already had. The unit will start with the orbits of the Earth, Moon, and Sun and how they are positioned in space and their gravitational pull. This will lead directly into seasons and what causes the seasons. It also sets up moon phases. I will then talk about the sun which is a good place to end because I will then start the part of this unit on stars. All these concepts connect and its my goal to have the students be able to connect all the points and eventually connect them with the facts I will be presenting in the other sections of this large astronomy unit.Quick Overview:
1. Relative Position of Earth, Moon, and Sun
- Gravity and Mass's effect on it.
2. Seasons- What causes them?
3. Moon- How was it formed?
- Who was the first to observe it?
- Phases
4. SunLearning Performances and Standards
Unpacked StandardOutline, Concept Map, or other Graphical Representation of the Concepts Addressed in the Unit
Astronomy Unit WebmapLesson Sequence
Day 1 - Solar System *Days 2 and 3 - Universe to Scale *
Days 4 and 5 - Gravity Exploration
Days 6 and 7 - Seasons
Days 8 - Reading Activity(Moon)
Days 9 and 10 - Moon Phases *
Days 11 and 12 - Sun Facts
Assessment Plan
I will be using a variety of different ways to assess the students ranging from asking questions to having them write out conclusions to experiments. The formative assessments will be used to assess how the students are doing over the course of the unit. They will have meaningful feedback which will help the students to understand what it is they need to keep working on and what they are excelling in. I feel like it is important to not only have corrections and criticism but also some positive feedback so the student is rewarded for their work. The formative assessment I will be using can be seen in the lesson plans above. The students will also have a summative assessment at the end of the unit assessing everything that they have learned. They will be required to put together a children's book that talks about all the aspects of astronomy we have covered so far. It can be done any way they want. If they would like to make it a story about an alien coming from a different galaxy and learning about our solar system and galaxy they can do that or they can just have it as a factual book. The rubric will be attached soon.
RMS Book Company Project
Book Rubric
Rationale
When I first started writing this lesson I wasn't sure how I wanted to approach it but as I started to come up with different ideas and move through it I decided that I wanted it to have many different aspects of learning. There are quite a few different skills learned throughout this unit. The student will learn to do research online and how to organize facts they find into an outline. I want to get across to these students that each thing we do works together. Everything that they learn can be connected. This is why I chose to sequence the lessons the way I did. As I keep moving through the full unit it will still work off of the model we came up with as a class and I can refer back to earlier lessons to build off of. I feel like building off things is extremely important. I know that the students have already had some of these lessons in prior classes but the information is so important to the rest of the unit that I need to make sure they know it. If a student doesn't really get that the Earth moves around the Sun and the Moon moves around the Earth how will they understand the seasons or lunar phases? The unit is developed so that the students can take the things they have learned and apply it to something new and that way it is learning in small increments to learn a great deal overall. I have a series of small formative assessments that really are for me more then for the students, by having them do these assessments I can see if they understand the material. If they aren't I can give them the help they truly need, and also I can give them some feedback in these to help with the skills I am trying to instill also. Having them pass in the outlines will give me a chance to critique them and give the some helpful hints on how to write notes and outlines. I have the students work in groups quite often but I feel like that most of the assessments should be done individually. I feel like students can learn from one another. We are not the only teacher in the classroom. We may be the only licensed teacher but kids sometimes can relate ideas to one another a lot better then we can. I have always been a big believer in the idea that when students work together they get more out of it because they get more then just their own ideas. My hope for this unit is that the students are able to take this basic knowledge they learn and apply it to information they learn in the future because they have such a strong base.Final Evaluation